Immigration News

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Raid at Dulles rounds up 55 alien workers

Federal immigration agents arrested 55 illegal alien construction workers early yesterday morning in a raid at Washington Dulles International Airport, part of Operation Tarmac, an ongoing crackdown that has netted thousands of illegals who have access to commercial airports.
    Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents stopped a large bus carrying the illegal aliens as it approached an airport checkpoint before 5 a.m.
    Although reports circulated that several suspects fled into a nearby wooded area, officials said it was unlikely since yesterday's operation targeted only the bus and all those aboard were taken into custody.
    There was no indication that any of the illegals were involved in any terrorist activity.
     "They were intercepted by ICE agents, who began to examine their work and immigration documents," said spokeswoman Ernestine Fobbs.
    The arrests capped a several-weeks-long investigation by ICE, the Transportation Security Agency (TSA), U.S. Customs and Border Protection, and the Metropolitan Washington Airport Authority (MWAA).
    Officials spent the day yesterday processing the detainees, who are from Mexico, Honduras, El Salvador, Guatemala and Bolivia. Most were scheduled to be flown to an ICE detention facility in Texas for removal proceedings.
    The two privately owned construction companies that employed the illegals had been busing the workers to the airport each morning for several weeks.
    ICE did not release the names of the firms or say whether they were locally based. The firms may face charges if an investigation reveals they knowingly hired illegal aliens. Rob Yingling, an MWAA spokesman, said at least 35 companies with more than 2,000 contractors are working on the $4 billion construction project at Dulles, which includes new runways, a subway system and concourse expansion.
    The illegal alien workers were escorted at all times and did not have access to aircraft or other sensitive equipment, Jonathan Gaffney, another MWAA official, said. They worked in a secure, fenced area of the airport.
     "The security gate where they did their [work] is far removed from runways, at least a mile away," Mr. Gaffney said.
    Construction workers do not wear badges and are not subject to identification screenings or background checks, Mr. Gaffney said
    It is strictly the construction firms' responsibility to hire, screen and escort employees through the airport to their fenced-off work site -- a policy he said does not pose a terror risk.
    "The construction company knows who their employees are [and] we don't really need to know who they are," he said. "Those who do have access to the airport [such as baggage workers, tarmac workers and flight attendants] have badges and go through a whole different screening process."
    ICE officials, however, say one of the illegal workers had an airport security badge that allows unrestricted access to the tarmac -- a situation that Department of Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Julie L. Myers, who heads ICE, said poses a "serious" threat to homeland security.
    Mr. Yingling said the badge requires individuals to submit extensive paperwork, at least one government-issued identification card, fingerprints which are given to the FBI, and must undergo a criminal background check.
    The roster of persons holding badges are regularly filed with the TSA, he said, and ICE is investigating whether the illegal alien obtained the badge fraudulently.
    Some travelers seemed surprised when informed of the arrests.
    "I think it's very disturbing," said Samantha Morton, 36, who arrived from her home in Houston.
    She expressed sympathy for illegal aliens, but said that "not only do airports need to be secure, but people need to feel secure in them."
    In April, ICE agents arrested eight Mexican illegals at Baltimore-Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport for possible connection with a human-smuggling operation.
    m Matthew Cella contributed to this report.

[Soldier4Christ]

45,000 from terror-linked nations freed, students face 'illegal' life

Immigration agents released half the people they detained who were here illegally from countries that sponsor or support terrorists, a federal study found.

Since 2001, 45,000 people from those countries have been released back into society, a Department of Homeland Security inspector general found in a report released last month. Some of those released had committed crimes.

The situation poses "significant risks" because ICE is releasing some people whose backgrounds are unknown, the report said.

Figures for Colorado were not available. When the Rocky Mountain News researched foreign-born inmates with immigration holds who were in Colorado prisons in May last year, more than 30 were from countries believed to support terrorism.

The federal study also found that as many as one in 10 immigrants who committed crimes in the U.S. are released, largely because of a lack of space and funds.

That falls in line with the findings of the News' yearlong investigation, which determined that at least 10 percent of the foreign-born prison inmates whose records were reviewed had a prior criminal record. Yet there was no record that immigration officials had tried to remove them before they committed the crimes that landed them in prison.

Officials with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Denver said they do not know exactly how many times they have released immigrants who had committed offenses beyond their immigration violations. ICE does not keep those figures.

The inspector general's staff was able to reach its figures only by starting with the total number of immigrants caught by ICE, and subtracting those who were deported or given some other known outcome, such as release on bond. Some could have been removed without a court order, but ICE doesn't track that. The same is true of Colorado prison inmates. ICE officials declined to review their records to see whether any had been administratively removed.

The number of immigrants, including those from terrorism-linked countries, who are caught and released has shot up since 2001, the report said.

Immigration officials say shrinking resources are to blame. Nationally, ICE had a smaller budget and less detention space in 2005 than in 2004 or 2003, even as resources for border security have grown.

"The reality is we're in quicksand," said Victor Cerda, the former national head of ICE's detention and removal program. "You've got to narrow the field in terms of targets."

The targets are many.

The U.S. has an estimated 12 million illegal immigrants, almost 600,000 fugitives who were ordered deported but disappeared and 65,000 undocumented students graduating each year from U.S. high schools and becoming deportable adults. ICE agents also are responsible for catching untold numbers of human smugglers and makers of fake IDs.

"It's a question of priorities," said Kris Kobach, who was chief immigration adviser to former U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft. "The question is where to target ICE resources. Clearly the resources to find and remove 12 million aliens aren't there."

The Denver ICE region - which covers Colorado, Idaho, Montana and Wyoming - already is struggling to do its job. Detainees sometimes must sleep on mattresses on the floor at the overcrowded Aurora detention facility. Rural sheriffs say ICE agents can't always pick up illegal immigrants they arrest.

To boost the immigration system, President Bush last month asked for nearly $2 billion in emergency funds, most of which would go to the border. The national budget for ICE, at roughly $3.9 billion, is less than the country spends on cotton-farming subsidies or enforcing marijuana laws.

"Two billion dollars is being touted as a large investment; it's not," Cerda said. "By the time that trickles down to Denver, you're going to get a scrap or two."
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IN PURSUIT OF FUGITIVES: John Fabbricatore, a member of the fugitive operations team in the Denver office of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, works with other agents in tracking down immigrants who have been ordered deported. The team recently spent a day trying to find three men - a Honduran, a Mexican and an Armenian. They are among the 4,000 immigrants considered fugitives in the Colorado region, which includes Idaho, Montana and Wyoming.

[Soldier4Christ]

Bush Administration Quietly Plans NAFTA Super Highway

Quietly but systematically, the Bush Administration is advancing the plan to build a huge NAFTA Super Highway, four football-fields-wide, through the heart of the U.S. along Interstate 35, from the Mexican border at Laredo, Tex., to the Canadian border north of Duluth, Minn.

Once complete, the new road will allow containers from the Far East to enter the United States through the Mexican port of Lazaro Cardenas, bypassing the Longshoreman’s Union in the process. The Mexican trucks, without the involvement of the Teamsters Union, will drive on what will be the nation’s most modern highway straight into the heart of America. The Mexican trucks will cross border in FAST lanes, checked only electronically by the new “SENTRI” system. The first customs stop will be a Mexican customs office in Kansas City, their new Smart Port complex, a facility being built for Mexico at a cost of $3 million to the U.S. taxpayers in Kansas City.

As incredible as this plan may seem to some readers, the first Trans-Texas Corridor segment of the NAFTA Super Highway is ready to begin construction next year. Various U.S. government agencies, dozens of state agencies, and scores of private NGOs (non-governmental organizations) have been working behind the scenes to create the NAFTA Super Highway, despite the lack of comment on the plan by President Bush. The American public is largely asleep to this key piece of the coming “North American Union” that government planners in the new trilateral region of United States, Canada and Mexico are about to drive into reality.

Just examine the following websites to get a feel for the magnitude of NAFTA Super Highway planning that has been going on without any new congressional legislation directly authorizing the construction of the planned international corridor through the center of the country.

    * NASCO, the North America SuperCorridor Coalition Inc., is a “non-profit organization dedicated to developing the world’s first international, integrated and secure, multi-modal transportation system along the International Mid-Continent Trade and Transportation Corridor to improve both the trade competitiveness and quality of life in North America.” Where does that sentence say anything about the USA? Still, NASCO has received $2.5 million in earmarks from the U.S. Department of Transportation to plan the NAFTA Super Highway as a 10-lane limited-access road (five lanes in each direction) plus passenger and freight rail lines running alongside pipelines laid for oil and natural gas. One glance at the map of the NAFTA Super Highway on the front page of the NASCO website will make clear that the design is to connect Mexico, Canada, and the U.S. into one transportation system.

    * Kansas City SmartPort Inc. is an “investor based organization supported by the public and private sector” to create the key hub on the NAFTA Super Highway. At the Kansas City SmartPort, the containers from the Far East can be transferred to trucks going east and west, dramatically reducing the ground transportation time dropping the containers off in Los Angeles or Long Beach involves for most of the country. A brochure on the SmartPort website describes the plan in glowing terms: “For those who live in Kansas City, the idea of receiving containers nonstop from the Far East by way of Mexico may sound unlikely, but later this month that seemingly far-fetched notion will become a reality.”

    * The U.S. government has housed within the Department of Commerce (DOC) an “SPP office” that is dedicated to organizing the many working groups laboring within the executive branches of the U.S., Mexico and Canada to create the regulatory reality for the Security and Prosperity Partnership. The SPP agreement was signed by Bush, President Vicente Fox, and then-Prime Minister Paul Martin in Waco, Tex., on March 23, 2005. According to the DOC website, a U.S.-Mexico Joint Working Committee on Transportation Planning has finalized a plan such that “(m)ethods for detecting bottlenecks on the U.S.-Mexico border will be developed and low cost/high impact projects identified in bottleneck studies will be constructed or implemented.” The report notes that new SENTRI travel lanes on the Mexican border will be constructed this year. The border at Laredo should be reduced to an electronic speed bump for the Mexican trucks containing goods from the Far East to enter the U.S. on their way to the Kansas City SmartPort.

    * The Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) is overseeing the Trans-Texas Corridor (TTC) as the first leg of the NAFTA Super Highway. A 4,000-page environmental impact statement has already been completed and public hearings are scheduled for five weeks, beginning next month, in July 2006. The billions involved will be provided by a foreign company, Cintra Concessions de Infraestructuras de Transporte, S.A. of Spain. As a consequence, the TTC will be privately operated, leased to the Cintra consortium to be operated as a toll-road.

The details of the NAFTA Super Highway are hidden in plan view. Still, Bush has not given speeches to bring the NAFTA Super Highway plans to the full attention of the American public. Missing in the move toward creating a North American Union is the robust public debate that preceded the decision to form the European Union. All this may be for calculated political reasons on the part of the Bush Administration.

A good reason Bush does not want to secure the border with Mexico may be that the administration is trying to create express lanes for Mexican trucks to bring containers with cheap Far East goods into the heart of the U.S., all without the involvement of any U.S. union workers on the docks or in the trucks.

[Soldier4Christ]

Minuteman Group Hires Fence-Building Contractor

SIERRA VISTA, Arizona — The Minutemen civilian border-patrol group has hired a contractor to finish building 10 miles of fence along the Mexican border.

Construction on the fence began May 27, when about 150 supporters turned out for the groundbreaking, but the number of volunteers then dwindled.

"We don't want to put up something that will just be a symbol," said Al Garza, the group's executive director. "We want to make sure it's permanent, properly structured and done right."

As few as four people were observed working on the fence recently, said Cecile Lumer of the humanitarian aid group Citizens for Border Solutions.

"From the beginning, the numbers they have projected have always fallen very short of the reality," Lumer said.

One of the ranch owners, Jack Ladd, said he hoped the fence would keep Mexican livestock off his property, but he doubted it would keep people out.

"We want to make it clear that while we oppose illegal immigration, we weren't necessarily trying to keep Mexicans off the land," he said.

[Soldier4Christ]

Border agents take gunfire; no one injured

Several Border Patrol agents were fired upon Wednesday evening in Nogales while responding to a call about a vehicle that was entering the country without going through a port of entry, an official said Thursday.
Around 7 p.m. Border Patrol agents responded to a report of a silver Mercedes sport utility vehicle driving through the desert in Nogales, said Jesus Rodriguez, a spokesman for the agency's Tucson Sector.
As the agents neared the SUV, they were fired upon, he said. One patrol vehicle took rounds to the windshield and the body.
The agent in that vehicle fired back as did another agent in a separate vehicle, he said.
No agents were injured and it was unclear if any of the suspects were hit, Rodriguez said.
The SUV was abandoned and three people were seen running from that general area, he said. Inside the SUV, agents discovered 700 pounds of what appears to be marijuana.
The Nogales Police Department apprehended one person who may be involved with the incident, Rodriguez said.
The names of the agents involved in the shooting were not released Thursday morning.

[Soldier4Christ]

Selling illegal immigrants the American dream

Ramiro and Marisol looked on proudly as their 3-year-old son, Alexis, took out his toolbox and pretended to fix a closet in their new San Jose home. He was imitating the flurry of work his parents had put into the one-bedroom condominium over the past two weekends, installing new linoleum and carpets from Home Depot, painting and repairing.

With a shy giggle, Marisol, 27, pointed out where she plans to put the sofa and the TV in the tiny living room while Ramiro, 32, talked about being able to grill carne asada on the tree-shaded balcony.

They joked about how rarely they see each other. Ramiro works six days a week in a sheet-metal factory and attends night school to get his high school diploma. Marisol goes to business classes in the mornings and works afternoons as an office assistant while Alexis attends preschool.

It was a typical new-homeowner scene with one exception: Ramiro and Marisol, who asked that their last name not be used, are undocumented immigrants from Mexico. They've been in the country for four years. Marisol entered on a tourist visa. Ramiro hid in a car.

Their immigration status did not prevent them from buying a home. It is legal for undocumented people to purchase property in the United States.

The problem has been borrowing the money to pay for it. Ramiro and Marisol have stable jobs, but many undocumented people have spotty or nonexistent credit histories. Often, they've worked off the books. That's two big strikes against getting a mortgage.

Another issue used to be an absolute deal breaker when undocumented people applied for home loans: Until recently, people had to have a Social Security number to qualify for a mortgage.

Now, a handful of banks, including some major institutions, have begun offering home-mortgage loans to people who don't have Social Security accounts. Instead, borrowers can use individual taxpayer identification numbers, or ITINs, which are used to file income tax returns. These lending programs also allow borrowers to use unconventional ways to demonstrate their creditworthiness.

The Internal Revenue Service issues taxpayer IDs to both resident and nonresident aliens so they can pay taxes. A significant number of the 8.6 million holders of individual taxpayer IDs are illegal immigrants, according to the Government Accounting Office.

Even as a heated debate swirls around the 12 million unauthorized immigrants in the United States, they are increasingly participating in the country's financial system, from paying taxes to opening bank accounts. And, for many undocumented people, just as for many citizens, the ultimate financial goal is to be a homeowner.

"For those families who have the American dream, but don't have access to documentation, the (the taxpayer ID mortgage) is a way for them to be able to buy a home, lay down roots and build wealth for their family for the future," said Janis Bowdler, housing policy analyst at the National Council of La Raza, a Hispanic civil-rights organization in Washington, D.C.

Opponents of illegal immigration deplore mortgages for undocumented people. Some say the banks making taxpayer ID loans are guilty of aiding and abetting criminals.

U.S. Rep. John Doolittle, a Republican from Roseville (Placer County), has introduced a bill that would ban issuing residential mortgages to illegal immigrants.

"The government should not be in the business of creating incentives to encourage illegal behavior. Nor should companies be permitted to reward those individuals in clear violation of our laws," Doolittle said in a statement when he introduced the bill in October.

The bill, which also would require expedited deportation of people caught entering the United States illegally, is pending in the Subcommittee on Immigration, Border Security and Claims.

It benefits the economy when immigrants move from "mattress money" into mainstream financial transactions, economists say. And illegal immigrants represent a huge potential market. Undocumented Latino immigrants could take out some $44 billion in mortgage loans if they had the same access as legal residents, according to a 2004 study for the National Association of Hispanic Real Estate Professionals.

"People traditionally talk about the undocumented Latino population as furtive people in the shadows who are very marginalized," said the study's author, Rob Paral, a research fellow with the American Immigration Law Foundation in Washington, D.C. "What's really changed is that a lot of people who are undocumented have fairly decent incomes. They have spending patterns and social behaviors which include an interest in buying a home and an ability to do it."

Using Census data on income and age, he estimated that 216,000 currently undocumented households could buy homes -- admittedly ones at modest prices. About a quarter of those potential home buyers are in California. "This is a large, untapped population from a financial point of view," Paral said. "If it were not restrained, it could be pouring a lot more money into society."

Banks have gotten that message loud and clear. U.S. banks now routinely accept both taxpayer ID numbers and a Mexican ID called matricula consular to open new accounts. Many reach out to the Latino community with Spanish marketing materials and bilingual bank tellers.

The latest twist is the taxpayer ID mortgage. Pioneered by small community banks, mainly in the Midwest, the loans slowly have begun to spread. As of September 2004, one credit union and 18 banks were offering such mortgages, according to a report by independent researcher Mari Gallagher. In California, Wells Fargo and Citibank both offer taxpayer ID mortgage loans, albeit in small programs.

Citibank's version of the loans is made in conjunction with ACORN Housing, a nonprofit that promotes home ownership among low-income people. ACORN does initial screening of potential borrowers and refers those who can qualify to Citibank.

Mark Rodgers, a spokesman for the New York bank, said its loans do not specifically address immigration status.

"We look to provide financial services across the wide spectrum of consumers in the United States," he said. "This is a program for borrowers in low- to moderate-income households, and we do, as part of that program, accept (taxpayer IDs) in addition to Social Security numbers."

[Soldier4Christ]

Marisol and Ramiro got their mortgage through the Citibank/ACORN Housing program, which offers interest rates a full percentage point below the published rate and $3,000 toward closing costs or down payment. In addition, their Realtor, Rebecca Gallardo-Serrano of Protelo Group Realty in San Jose, gave them a rebate of $2,500 to help pay their closing costs. At less than $260,000, their small condo was the lowest-cost listing in Santa Clara County.

The program acknowledges the reality that many Latino immigrants do not have much traditional credit history.

"In the Latino community, we don't like to have debt," said Frances Martinez Myers, chairwoman of the National Association of Hispanic Real Estate Professionals. "We transact in cash, so there's no credit history."

Marisol and Ramiro, for example, "used very nonconventional credit," Gallardo-Serrano said. ACORN Housing verified that the couple had paid their bills on time for the past two years to PG&E, San Jose Water, their landlord and a health club. In addition, they showed two years of tax returns and employment history.

Lez Trujillo, field director with ACORN Housing Corp. in Chicago, said the program with Citibank, which is available in about seven states, has made 804 mortgages worth $153 million since early 2005. Of those, 387 were in California, primarily Northern California. An additional 1,300 borrowers are now in the pipeline, either in contract or shopping for a house.

None of the mortgages has resulted in a foreclosure. In fact, among all the borrowers, there have only been two late payments, both quickly remedied, she said.

Aren't illegal immigrants worried that buying a home could make them more vulnerable to deportation?

"It's a risk people are willing to take," Trujillo said. "Many of them have established credit, have had a job for many, many years, have been paying taxes. They have families, they want a stable place, privacy -- the same reasons the rest of society buys a house. The mentality is that they are here to stay and want to buy houses."

Wells Fargo has offered taxpayer ID mortgages since December in a pilot program in Los Angeles and Orange counties. The bank declined to discuss the program, instead sending a short statement saying it will continue to evaluate it.

The biggest barrier to such loans is that they cannot easily be sold on the secondary mortgage market. Most banks sell the mortgages they originate to bring in more money to make more loans. Instead, banks must keep taxpayer-ID mortgages in their portfolios, tying up capital.

"If there was an investor, whether Freddie Mac, Fannie Mae or someone on Wall Street, who decided they would start buying (taxpayer ID mortgages), it would certainly make it a lot easier for lenders to make them," said Brad German, a spokesman for Freddie Mac, a government-sponsored entity that repackages mortgages for sale to investors. Freddie Mac is studying whether to buy taxpayer ID mortgages, German said.

Mortgage Guarantee Insurance Corp., the nation's largest mortgage insurer, provides insurance on taxpayer ID loans.

While Mortgage Guarantee does not release specific numbers, Katie Monfre, a spokeswoman for the Milwaukee company, said taxpayer ID loans account for less than a half-percent of its overall business. "I can tell you the loans we've had on this very young book of business have been performing well," she said. That means they've had a very low rate of delinquencies and defaults.

Gallagher, who specializes in research on undocumented Mexicans and the mortgage market, said that despite the shifting political winds, she thinks taxpayer ID mortgages will grow because the market pressure of so many immigrants who want to buy homes will be so strong.

"This is the match that could light the next fire in the mortgage industry," she said.

That kind of talk ignites wrath among anti-immigration partisans.

"It's simply wrong for foreign lawbreakers to be enabled to plant roots in this country by way of obtaining a mortgage," Roy Beck, executive director of NumbersUSA, a group that wants to curtail immigration growth, wrote in support of the Doolittle bill that would bar mortgages for undocumented aliens.

Ramiro and Marisol don't see themselves as lawbreakers. They hope to become citizens. And they hope that their condo will appreciate in value so they can trade up.

"After I finish school, I want to have another baby, a girl," Marisol said. "Then in three years or maybe two, we can buy a house."

[Soldier4Christ]

Border officials:
Bush snubbed us
Refuses meeting for 2nd time on security,
GOP lawmakers set investigative hearings

In a move that has angered lawmakers and sheriffs, President Bush refused to meet with border law enforcement officials in Texas for a second time, prompting some Republican congress members to schedule hearings.

Rep. Ted Poe, R-Texas, a member of the House subcommittee on international terrorism and nonproliferation, said the administration has shown a seeming lack of concern for border security, the San Bernardino Sun reported.

Poe has pushed for the hearings in San Diego and Laredo, Texas, early next month, hoping they will expose the border situation to the public and force action by the administration.

The congressman said that in his two trips to the border this year he witnessed long, barren stretches with no security and numerous illegals crossing into the U.S.

"The next terrorist is not going to come in through screening at Kennedy airport," Poe told the Sun. "We already have information that people from the Middle East have come through the border from Mexico. They assimilate in Mexico learning to speak Spanish and adopt customs and then they cross the border into the United States."

Poe said a group that includes all 26 border county sheriffs from California, New Mexico, Arizona and Texas – the Southwestern Sheriffs' Border Coalition – wanted to speak to the president on the increasingly dangerous situation along the border.

"The president is the busiest man in the world but he needs to take the time to talk to the border sheriffs and learn what's happening in the real world from them," Poe said. "We can't understand why he refuses to meet with them."

The first rejection from the president came in May when the entire Republican House contingent from Texas went to the nation's capital to meet with the president on border security. In place of the president, however, the White House sent former presidential spokesman Scott McClellan.

A letter issued Monday by the White House illustrates how out of touch the administration is with the American people, Poe contends.

Signed by La Rhonda M. Houston, deputy director of the Office of Appointments and Scheduling, the letter said:

    "The president would appreciate the opportunity to visit with border sheriffs. Regrettably, it will not be possible for us to arrange such a meeting. I know that you understand with the tremendous demands of the president's time, he must often miss special opportunities, as is the case this time."

Sheriff's coalition spokesman Rick Glancey said his members are angry and disappointed.

"It's a slap in the face to the hardworking men and women on the front lines of rural America who every day engage in border security issues," Glancey told the San Bernardino paper. "He missed the opportunity to take off his White House cowboy boots and put some real cowboy boots on, and walk in our shoes for a few minutes."

White House spokesman David Almacy insisted President Bush "is committed to ensuring that our nation's borders are secure."

"This month, 6,000 National Guard members were deployed to assist the Border Patrol and other inter-agency partners," he said. "The president has also increased federal funding that will give state and local authorities the specialized training needed to help federal officers apprehend and detain illegal immigrants."

[Soldier4Christ]

Border officials:
Bush snubbed us
Refuses meeting for 2nd time on security,
GOP lawmakers set investigative hearings

In a move that has angered lawmakers and sheriffs, President Bush refused to meet with border law enforcement officials in Texas for a second time, prompting some Republican congress members to schedule hearings.

Rep. Ted Poe, R-Texas, a member of the House subcommittee on international terrorism and nonproliferation, said the administration has shown a seeming lack of concern for border security, the San Bernardino Sun reported.

Poe has pushed for the hearings in San Diego and Laredo, Texas, early next month, hoping they will expose the border situation to the public and force action by the administration.

The congressman said that in his two trips to the border this year he witnessed long, barren stretches with no security and numerous illegals crossing into the U.S.

"The next terrorist is not going to come in through screening at Kennedy airport," Poe told the Sun. "We already have information that people from the Middle East have come through the border from Mexico. They assimilate in Mexico learning to speak Spanish and adopt customs and then they cross the border into the United States."

Poe said a group that includes all 26 border county sheriffs from California, New Mexico, Arizona and Texas – the Southwestern Sheriffs' Border Coalition – wanted to speak to the president on the increasingly dangerous situation along the border.

"The president is the busiest man in the world but he needs to take the time to talk to the border sheriffs and learn what's happening in the real world from them," Poe said. "We can't understand why he refuses to meet with them."

The first rejection from the president came in May when the entire Republican House contingent from Texas went to the nation's capital to meet with the president on border security. In place of the president, however, the White House sent former presidential spokesman Scott McClellan.

A letter issued Monday by the White House illustrates how out of touch the administration is with the American people, Poe contends.

Signed by La Rhonda M. Houston, deputy director of the Office of Appointments and Scheduling, the letter said:

    "The president would appreciate the opportunity to visit with border sheriffs. Regrettably, it will not be possible for us to arrange such a meeting. I know that you understand with the tremendous demands of the president's time, he must often miss special opportunities, as is the case this time."

Sheriff's coalition spokesman Rick Glancey said his members are angry and disappointed.

"It's a slap in the face to the hardworking men and women on the front lines of rural America who every day engage in border security issues," Glancey told the San Bernardino paper. "He missed the opportunity to take off his White House cowboy boots and put some real cowboy boots on, and walk in our shoes for a few minutes."

White House spokesman David Almacy insisted President Bush "is committed to ensuring that our nation's borders are secure."

"This month, 6,000 National Guard members were deployed to assist the Border Patrol and other inter-agency partners," he said. "The president has also increased federal funding that will give state and local authorities the specialized training needed to help federal officers apprehend and detain illegal immigrants."

[Soldier4Christ]

Illegals protester seeks equal time
Student in appeals court after counter-demonstration barred


A California student has filed an emergency appeal claiming high school officials intentionally interfered with his right to speak out on the issue of illegal immigration.

Joshua Denhalter of Jurupa Valley High School in Mira Loma, Calif., alleges he was barred from holding a counter-protest after students March 27, mostly of Mexican-American descent, illegally walked out of school in protest of legislation in the U.S. House of Representatives that would make being in the country illegally a felony.

Denhalter is represented by the public interest firm Lively, Ackerman & Cowles, which filed the appeal yesterday with the California Fourth District Court of Appeal, requesting he be allowed to "express himself freely as to political matters until the end of the school year," June 21.

The student, who plans to begin Marine Corps boot camp June 26, says that instead of walking out and being truant, he chose to organize a legitimate and lawful counter-protest during the lunch hour March 30.

The emergency appeal follows a superior court's refusal to hear Denhalter's demand for relief June 14

Attorney Richard Ackerman called the school's actions "one of the worst governmental censorship cases I have seen in over a decade of practice."

"It is simply unbelievable that a school district would take sides with those who promote illegal activity over a student wishing to express his protected views in a traditionally and legally acceptable manner," Ackerman said. "These officials must be severely punished for their actions."

The suit says the "peaceable assembly" was to take place across from the school on a public sidewalk, which traditionally is considered a public forum.

Denhalter claims the assembly would not have disrupted school activities because the high school has an "open lunch" period in which students are free to come and go.

Any student, therefore, could have attended the assembly during lunch without disruption or violation of truancy laws.

On the morning of March 30, Denhalter handed out fliers for the event and later was approached by school officials who told him he had to stop.

The student refused and was suspended for "handing out flyers (before school) advocating the disruption of school activities."

The suit argues, however, the school did not punish the dozens of students who walked out in violation of the law several days before.

Denhalter also points out that from March 27-30, the school allowed the radical Hispanic separatist group MEChA to sponsor an on-campus rally in opposition to the House bill.

Denhalter's request to sponsor a similar rally on campus was denied by the school board.

The suit also says that on May 25 school officials barred Denhalter from wearing a "Save Our State T-shirt.

Ackerman says Denhalter, on the verge of entering the Marine Corps, cannot afford the litigation and is accepting tax-deductible donations through the Sacramento-based Pro Family Law Center.

[Soldier4Christ]

Texas ranchers hope ladders will save fences


FALFURRIAS, Texas - If you can't beat 'em ... help them over?

Some South Texas ranchers, sick of having their pricey fences slashed by illegal immigrants trying to avoid Border Patrol checkpoints, have installed rudimentary ladders along the fences, hoping the migrants will take the easy route and save their fence line.

"It's an attempt to get them to use the ladders instead of tearing the fences," said Scott Pattinson, who owns one of a group of ranches known as La Copa.

La Copa is just south of a U.S. Border Patrol highway checkpoint that went up several years ago, sending immigrants through the brambled scrub of nearby ranches instead.

The checkpoint is about 75 miles north of the U.S.-Mexico border, one of a line of checkpoints on highway routes leading out of South Texas. It is the end of the Border Patrol's saturation zone, and beyond it illegal immigrants and smugglers consider themselves home free.

Some immigrants walk for hours or days to skirt the checkpoints in temperatures hovering around 100 degrees.

Their feet have worn visible paths through a forest of cactus and mesquite otherwise thick enough to conceal them from Border Patrol helicopters overhead and agents only a few hundred yards away.

The paths lead from one ripped-down section of fencing to another.

"Just the wire is probably a dollar a foot," rancher Michael Vickers said. "You figure building it and everything could be $10 a foot. The wood (for the fences) is probably $100."

Texas ranches can be so large it could be days before owners notice the hole in the fence, long after the livestock possibly escapes.

Paul Johnson protects his exotic game ranch of zebras, scimitor-horned oryx and wildebeests on his 2,700 acre ranch with about 10 miles of high wire fence, and joined his neighbors in placing ladders along the way.

But apparently some immigrants think the ladders are too good to be true.

"They ignore it a lot," Johnson said. "They're afraid that they're monitored by the Border Patrol."

Johnson plans to take the ladders down, worried about the message he's sending.

"I think what it does is give a signal that we are wanting them to cross there, don't mind the crossing, and that kind of magnifies the problem," he said.

Vickers never liked the ladder idea and instead has ringed his fence with 220 volts of electricity.

"I've had a dose of it myself, it's not fun," he said. "That's just my attitude, why make it easier for them to trespass?" he said.

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Mexican border towns fear U.S. crackdown

Patricia Lopez's journey toward a better life in the United States ended with a nighttime robbery, a twisted knee and a Border Patrol escort to the frontier — where she was dumped at dawn without a peso in her pocket, 1,575 miles from home.

She's far from alone: Nearly 1 million people, many of them penniless, were turned back across the border last year, and analysts fear that tougher new U.S. border enforcement will inundate border towns with the desperate and the destitute.

Migrant shelter directors are scrambling for funds and considering hiring more staff to keep their doors open 24 hours a day in anticipation of a record number of migrants being repatriated.

"Everyone is getting ready because we're worried there is going to be a mass deportation of people," said Francisco Loureiro, who runs a migrant shelter in Nogales that houses up to 120 people a night. "We're worried there's going to be too many people to tend to, and we just don't have the room for more."

Most migrants try to bring a little money to the border, but they are vulnerable to bandits who prey on illegal crossers and can find most of their funds drained by the fees of people smugglers.

After Lopez crossed into the Arizona desert, robbers stripped her male companions down to their underwear in the night and stole her money as well — about $130.

Lopez, 35, gave up trying to make it to Indianapolis after twisting her knee. She hobbled to a highway and waited for the Border Patrol, which left her at the Nogales border crossing.

"I figured if it was going this bad, something else was going to happen," said Lopez, who was staying at Loureiro's shelter. "Now I just want to go home."

But a bus ticket back to Acapulco — and her two children — would cost about $105 — three week's work at Mexico's minimum wage.

Lopez said agents of a Mexican government migrant aid force, Grupo Beta, offered to pay about a quarter of that and she was going to ask for the rest from local churches.

If that failed, the single mom would find a temporary job.

The first of 6,000 U.S. National Guard troops are being deployed to the border this month for support work that will help the Border Patrol concentrate on catching illegal migrants. Border experts say that will mean thousands more being detained and dropped at the border.

"As agents are freed up and deployed back to the line and the National Guard troops support our operations ... all this will add up to an increase in apprehensions," Border Patrol spokesman Todd Fraser said in Washington D.C.

So far, the troops appear to be discouraging crossings. The Border Patrol says detentions have dropped since the National Guard arrived in early June.

But most expect crossings to rise as smugglers find new routes around the increased security.

"Repatriations are going to accelerate and the border zone is going to be hit the hardest with this, because the cities are going to be receiving people in search of resources and these towns don't have them," said Jorge Santibanez, director of the Tijuana-based Colegio de La Frontera Norte, a border research center.

"The government should be helping these migrant organizations and putting the infrastructure in place now," he said.

Border experts say more than 75 percent of migrants who are returned to the border try crossing again. Others scrounge for a bus fare home. A few wind up living off the streets.

Blanca Villasenor, who runs a shelter in the border city of Mexicali, said that when the U.S. concentrated agents in hotspots in Texas and California in 1994, Mexicali was flooded with repatriated migrants.

Thousands slept in the city's streets and parks.

"Maybe it wasn't a mass deportation per se, but there were really a lot of migrants returned — some 30,000 a month — and that was just in Mexicali," Villasenor said. "They arrive without money. A third of those who are deported are dropped off in the night at 1 or 2 a.m. They are completely unprotected and are often abused by police or others."

It's been a thorny issue for both governments.

In 2004, U.S. officials tried a Lateral Repatriation Program meant to break migrants ties with their smugglers, whose fees often include several attempts to cross. Each day, 300 migrants caught in Arizona were dropped off in Mexican towns on the Texas border.

The program, however, outraged Texans who said it brought more illegal immigrants into their state. The Mexican government complained migrants were stranded in unfamiliar areas.

Last year, U.S. officials budgeted $14.2 million for a pilot program that flew as many as 33,900 Mexican migrants to Mexico's heartland rather than leaving them at the border.

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Border restrictions not enough to slow use of illegal labor


TUCSON, Ariz. -- All day long, Border Patrol agents head south from their station on West Ajo Way toward the nation's busiest corridor for illegal crossings.

They pass one sprouting subdivision after another, where construction workers oblivious to passing la migra trucks lay foundation, staple insulation and pound roof shingles. Many of them _ at least one third in Arizona _ are here illegally.

Workers here illegally have learned like millions before them _ make it past the increasingly militarized U.S. border and you'll find safe haven and steady work in industries such as home building, which employs more than 27,000 people in Tucson.

Within weeks, the U.S. House and Senate will begin wrangling over their widely varied proposals to revamp immigration laws, spurred in large part by growing public discontent over the unending flow of illegal immigrants into this country.

But the plans fall short of the multi-pronged approach needed for real reform, according to an Arizona Daily Star investigation based on interviews with dozens of academics, analysts and employers. Tangible change demands a fraud-proof system to verify legal workers and a wholesale overhaul that would bust more employers of illegal workers and force the sharing of critical information among federal agencies.

That would take years and cost billions _ and demand the destruction of a culture that for decades has tolerated illegal immigration in exchange for its many silent benefits.

In Tucson, illegal workers benefit from steady paychecks and from educational and cultural opportunities scarce or unavailable in their native countries.

Home builders and subcontractors who knowingly or unknowingly hire illegal workers, benefit from labor that keeps Tucson's $2 billion-a-year home-building industry growing.

And homeowners benefit from new-house prices that might have been beyond their reach without illegal labor, which economists say holds down wages and home prices.

Eliminating the illegal work force would mean higher pay for legal workers, at least in the short term, economists say. But some builders fear it also would push up home prices _ now 30 percent higher than in April 2005 _ and drive down profit margins already so thin some say they're tempted to put away their hammers for good.

Massive reform also could upset big-business campaign contributors who favor lax work-site enforcement, says Demetrios Papademetriou, president of the Migration Policy Institute, a nonpartisan think tank in Washington.

"The easiest thing to do is throw money at the border. Nobody objects to that," Papademetriou says. "When you start shutting businesses down, people get gotcha8ed off."

No matter the cost, society no longer can ignore the "illegal" in illegal immigration, says Rick Oltman, Western field director for the Federation for American Immigration Reform.

"First of all, it's against the law, and the second thing is that it has the impact of inflating our population, driving down wages, putting burdens on social services, schools, education, law enforcement," says Oltman, whose group favors less legal immigration and a stop to illegal immigration. "And it sends the entirely wrong message around the world as to what our immigration policies are."

With estimates of illegal residents in this country reaching as high as 12 million, immigration reform has become a popular refrain.

Nationally, the Senate and House proposals focus primarily on border security, but they also include provisions to quash the illegal work force:

_ Higher penalties and fines for employers.

_ A mandatory electronic system to verify work eligibility.

_ Fraud-proof identification cards.

_ Sharing of information between the Social Security Administration and the Department of Homeland Security.

The Senate bill, which includes a guest-worker program with a path to permanent legal status, would provide more agents to investigate employers. The House bill would not. It deals mostly with border enforcement and makes illegal entry a felony.

President Bush favors a temporary guest-worker program and tamper-proof Social Security cards. He also wants harsher penalties for those who hire illegal immigrants, comparing current fines to parking tickets.

Implementing an immigration plan means overpowering a business lobby that has fought hard to preserve the status quo, Oltman says.

"That has been the game all these years _ to ask those in power not to enforce the law, drag their feet and make excuses," Oltman says.

Staying there means withstanding shifting political winds, Papademetriou says.

"This is serious money we are talking about, and this is a country that is having serious budget problems," he says. "My guess is that as soon as the country moves on from the issue of immigration, among the first things that will fall by the wayside will be funding for a robust effort at employer sanctions."

As lawmakers debated reform in recent weeks, Homeland Security started cracking down on employers. Since Oct. 1, agents have arrested more than 2,000 people.

Construction companies' new status as immigration bad guys doesn't sit well with home builders such as Les Wolf, who says he won't hire illegal workers but has trouble finding enough legal ones. Tucson needs 5,000 more construction workers to keep up with growth, the Southern Arizona Home Builders Association says.

"The available work force, as we sit here right now, is home watching ESPN and MTV, and playing their Game Boys and their Xboxes, and sitting there becoming obese Americans with their poor work ethic and terrible sense of values with no loyalty or commitment base," Wolf says. "That's a problem, and now we're going to get upset because someone that doesn't have any of those problems crosses a border and wants a job."

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Two held in drive-by slaying of toddler


Two men have been arrested in the murder of an 18-month-old girl in a drive-by shooting at her family's home in Farmers Branch.

Lorenzo Conejo and David Macias face capital murder charges in the May death of Eva Gallegos, according to NBC 5. Police said they are illegal immigrants and have been reported to immigration authorities.

Eva was fatally wounded as she slept in her bedroom of the single-story house in the 2600 block of Overland Street. Police have said that as many as 13 rounds were fired into the home.

Farmers Branch police were unavailable Thursday morning to discuss how the suspects were identified and arrested.

Eva's father, Jesus Gallegos, told NBC 5 that the suspects work with his brother. He added that he visited with them at a pool party Saturday without knowing that they were suspects in the case.

Late May 25, police responded to a report of shots fired at the Gallegos home. Witnesses told officers that someone in a red four-door sedan, possibly a Nissan Sentra, had fired several shots.

One of the rounds hit Eva, police said.

She was taken to Children's Medical Center in Dallas, but trauma specialists could not save her.

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Immigration Costs Strain National Parks

 Drug smugglers fleeing Mexican police crossed into this desert park and fatally shot a ranger four years ago, prompting officials to build a 30-mile vehicle barrier.

That steel-and-concrete wall stops most cars from speeding in from Mexico. But drug and human traffickers have switched to rural entryways into Arizona.

Thousands of people now cross on foot. They leave piles of trash, build fires, damage the park's famous cacti and create countless trails through the fragile desert vegetation.

Park workers spend most of their time backing up Border Patrol officers and dealing with border issues.

"This tears my heart out, seeing the impacts on this place," Organ Pipe superintendent Kathy Billings said as she surveyed a fresh track through coarse sand.

The problems are not just on the border. After the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, the government added new homeland security responsibilities at national icons such as the Washington Monument, Independence Hall and Mount Rushmore.

Since 2001, the Park Service has received an additional $35 million in annual money for such duties. The government also provided $91 million in one-time dollars for icon parks and $18 million for Organ Pipe's barrier.

But superintendents say the costs are much higher. Rangers are pulled from other duties to help patrol. Managers at Organ Pipe, for example, spend about $100,000 a year from its maintenance budget to repair the vehicle barrier and an adjoining road.

"We'd like to see the Park Service reimbursed," said Blake Selzer of the National Parks Conservation Association, an advocacy group. "To truly address this issue, the amount of money is going to have to go up."

Homeland security, such as increased protections from illegal immigration, is a "a newly identified priority," said deputy Interior Secretary Lynn Scarlett.

Despite five years of public discussions and congressional hearings about new expenses, the Park Service could not provide The Associated Press with a detailed wish list of budget requests from the parks since Sept. 11, 2001. Nor could the agency provide an itemized tally of how such money has been spent on these new duties.

The only information available was the lump total provided to parks.

An agency spokesman said the details were kept by the individual parks or at the regional level and not in Washington.

"We have management controls and checks and balances with respect to funding of projects and operation expenses," spokesman David Barna said. "And we trust our employees to do the right thing."